Modern Warfare

On February 24, 2022, a full-scale war began right in the center of Europe. Missiles launched from the territory of Russia and Belarus began to destroy civilian and military infrastructure. Russia's troops invaded Ukraine. However, thanks to the determined resistance of the Ukrainian army (AFU) and the territorial defense forces in the early days of the aggression, the occupying army suffered a significant loss in personnel and machinery.

AFU: Armed Forces of Ukraine is a deck-building card game. We offer you the chance to test your strength and defeat the invaders.

The game consists of two phases. During the first phase, you need to think and plan your strategy and start building up your army. Every turn, you have to correctly distribute your resources in order to repel the enemy's attack, get as many bonuses as possible, and mobilize troops.

During the second phase, the game becomes even more interesting thanks to various events that will affect the players. Unlock objects, destroy the enemy, and do not forget about the achievements to prove your mastery of this game. Skillful management of the troops of the Armed Forces and preventing dismay will help you deliver a crushing defeat to the enemy!

Mid-East Peace is one of those great games where luck really doesn't play a part, once initial country selection is made. The game is set during the pressure cooker situation of the early 90's and the tension of the game certainly reflects this. Players out-maneuver and out-bluff one another so as to gain the riches of the region, while making sure they spend enough of the "oil/money" to ensure the safety of their state. The tension is kept up by secret deployment of forces and the continual angst of balancing resource spending with the saving necessary to come off the winner. It is, usually, the richest player, the one who has probably spent least on 'defense' throughout the game that will come off the victor. But, the twist is that the game can end in war or peace, and there are different victory conditions depending on which of the two outcomes it ends in. A very hard balance to maintain.

Commander-In-Chief is a fun fast-playing abstract strategy war game published by X Plus Products in which a player's Air, Land and Sea military vehicles work as a unified Armed Forces assault team to "capture" their opponent's Commander. The board consists of a traditional 8 square x 8 square checkerboard grid divided into two Land areas separated by a Sea area. Vehicles are restricted to movement within their assigned battlefields: Through the Air, On Land and/or In the Sea.

Pieces transverse the board in a Chess-like manner. Play evolves, turn by turn, with each player analyzing the current battlefield situation, adjusting their game plan accordingly and executing commands (movements of the playing pieces) in a collective effort to achieve the game's objective. Certain Air pieces (Bombers and Helicopters) can Go Over pieces; likewise certain Sea pieces (Submarines) can Go Under pieces. Additionally, certain pieces (Bombers and Tanks) can Block. The complete Original Release Basic Training Game Rules include "Object of the Game" options, "Team Game Play" options and "Advanced Game Play" options. "Future" options will include new movements, expansion pieces, additional damage control options, new attack features, mini wars and expanded terrains as variants to the Original Release Game Rules.

While this abstract strategy war game does not include random chance, it does allow for piece enhancements both during game play and during board set up which increases come from behind opportunities and can be used to level the playing field between players of various skill levels. The game can be played one-on-one or as a social game with teams. The military theme, the terrain feature of Air, Land and Sea areas of the board and the movements of the pieces themselves relative to the military vehicles they represent give the game a real world appeal.

The two Armed Forces consist of the following fifteen pieces per side: one Commander, two stealth Fighters, two army Tanks, one stealth Bomber, two submersible Submarine warships, two Helicopters, four amphibious assault vehicles (Amphibians) and one surface combatant Destroyer warship. This military themed board game, representing two Armed Forces, "Supports Our Troops" as the game of the "Y" by donating $1 to the Armed Services YMCA for every game sold.

Commander-In-Chief is a 3-In-1 board game that includes Chess & Checkers; these Classics are played on the dark and light colored side of the double sided game board. Additional game play options include: Tic-Tac-Toe and The Triangle Puzzle Game. Lastly, the 30 pieces that come with the game are miniatures, 30 Military Toys, designed for play with or without this board game and the 30 bases that the miniatures mount on, when inverted, become 30 Stackable Spinning Tops designed for multiple family fun games.

"Now the trumpet summons us again, not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle..."
– John F. Kennedy

In 1945, unlikely allies toppled Hitler's war machine, while humanity's most devastating weapons forced the Japanese Empire to its knees in a storm of fire. Where once there stood many great powers, there then stood only two. The world had scant months to sigh its collective relief before a new conflict threatened. Unlike the titanic struggles of the preceding decades, this conflict would be waged not primarily by soldiers and tanks, but by spies and politicians, scientists and intellectuals, artists and traitors. Twilight Struggle is a two-player game simulating the forty-five year dance of intrigue, prestige, and occasional flares of warfare between the Soviet Union and the United States. The entire world is the stage on which these two titans fight to make the world safe for their own ideologies and ways of life. The game begins amidst the ruins of Europe as the two new "superpowers" scramble over the wreckage of the Second World War, and ends in 1989, when only the United States remained standing.

Twilight Struggle inherits its fundamental systems from the card-driven classics We the People and Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage. It is a quick-playing, low-complexity game in that tradition. The game map is a world map of the period, whereon players move units and exert influence in attempts to gain allies and control for their superpower. As with GMT's other card-driven games, decision-making is a challenge; how to best use one's cards and units given consistently limited resources?

Twilight Struggle's Event cards add detail and flavor to the game. They cover a vast array of historical happenings, from the Arab-Israeli conflicts of 1948 and 1967, to Vietnam and the U.S. peace movement, to the Cuban Missile Crisis and other such incidents that brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation. Subsystems capture the prestige-laden Space Race as well as nuclear tensions, with the possibility of game-ending nuclear war.

A deluxe edition, published in 2009 includes the following changes from the basic game:

Mounted map with revised graphics
Two double-thick counter sheets with 260 counters
Deck of 110 event cards (increased from 103)
Revised rules and player aid cards
Revised at start setup and text change for card #98 Aldrich Ames

Upgrade kit for the owners of the previous version includes the following:

Mounted Map with revised graphics
New card decks
Updated Rules & Charts

There are also the deluxe mounted map and deluxe euro-style countersheet upgrades.

Components:

228 full colour counters (260 in the 2009 Deluxe edition)
22"x34" full colour cardboard map (mounted map with revised graphics in the 2009 Deluxe edition)
103 event cards (110 in the 2009 Deluxe edition)
2 six-sided dice
1 24-page rulebook
2 full colour player aid cards

TIME SCALE: approx. 3-5 years per turn
MAP SCALE: Point-to-point system
UNIT SCALE: Influence markers
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 - 2

DESIGNER: Ananda Gupta & Jason Matthews
MAP, CARD, & COUNTER ART: Mark Simonitch